Avalanche’s Lehkonen Injury Could Benefit These 3 Players

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As if the Colorado Avalanche weren’t already going to be short-staffed to start the 2024-25 season due to the much-discussed Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin situations, top-six winger Artturi Lehkonen is set to miss the beginning of training camp due to offseason shoulder surgery.

Lehkonen has been an underrated part of the Avalanche’s success since arriving from the Montreal Canadiens at the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline. The 29-year-old has tallied 43 goals and 94 points in 125 regular-season games during his tenure in Colorado, representing an 82-game pace of 28 goals and 62 points. He’s elevated his play during the postseason, scoring 17 goals and 31 points in 38 playoff games and scored the series-winning goal in the 2022 Western Conference Final and the 2022 Stanley Cup Final.

If Lehkonen’s absence extends into the regular season, the Avalanche will be hard-pressed to find regular contributions from their wingers outside of Mikko Rantanen and Jonathan Drouin. As such, these three players will have an unexpected opportunity to break into the top-six forward group to start the campaign.

Nikolai Kovalenko

There is arguably no player who will benefit more from the absence of Lehkonen (and Nichushkin and Landeskog for that matter) than 24-year-old winger Nikolai Kovalenko. The Avalanche’s sixth-round pick from 2018 has played in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) since being drafted, but finally signed a contract with the organization late last season.

Kovalenko scored three points in four regular-season games with the Colorado Eagles in the American Hockey League (AHL) before appearing in a pair of playoff games with the Avalanche, going pointless. After 32 goals and 89 points in 98 KHL games over the past two seasons, the time is now for the Russian to make his mark in the NHL as a dark-horse candidate for the Calder Trophy.

Nikolai Kovalenko Colorado Avalanche
Nikolai Kovalenko, Colorado Avalanche (Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)

Kovalenko is best placed in a scoring role and should have that opportunity with only a few names clearly ahead of him on Colorado’s depth chart. A regular role on the secondary powerplay unit should also be in the cards for the rookie forward and he’ll be under pressure to perform before the Avalanche’s injured or suspended forwards are cleared for action. In the same vein, he may never get the same opportunity again and will have no one to blame but himself if he fails to make an impact.

Calum Ritchie

While he is most likely to be a center at the NHL level, Calum Ritchie could use the Rookie Faceoff as a launching point to an extended stint in the NHL at one of the Avalanche’s vacant winger spots. Outside of Kovalenko, he would not have to compete with many other wingers for a top-nine spot in which he could play to his strengths.

Drouin and Rantanen are top-six mainstays for now, Miles Wood and Logan O’Connor are fixtures on the third line, with the rest being NHL-AHL tweeners or prospects who have not shown much in limited action.

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Ritchie is coming off of a productive 2023-24 season with the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) who he led in scoring with 28 goals and 80 points in 50 games. He ranked sixth among all OHL skaters in both assists-per-game (1.04) and points-per-game (1.60). The Generals were swept by the London Knights in the OHL Championship Series but he nearly dragged them to a title with eight goals and 30 points in 21 playoff games.

At this point, a nine-game tryout is all but a given and he may force the Avalanche to burn the first year of his entry-level contract (ELC) if he plays at a level beyond his years and Lehkonen’s absence lingers into the season.

Jonathan Drouin & Mikko Rantanen

Drouin and Rantanen come as a package deal for the purposes of this exercise given that both wingers are set to hit unrestricted free agency during the 2025 offseason and should see increased ice time due to the Avalanche’s lack of healthy top-six wingers.

Drouin re-upped for a single season after revitalizing his NHL career with 19 goals, 37 assists, and 56 points in 2023-24, with the latter two representing new career highs. His history with junior teammate MacKinnon earned him a one-year show-me deal last season and he delivered, but proving that 2023-24 was more than a flash in the pan is crucial in earning one last big NHL deal. He saw nearly four minutes of powerplay ice time last season (fifth among all Avalanche skaters) and should see even more to start the season without Nichushkin and Lehkonen breathing down his neck.

For Rantanen, a productive 2024-25 campaign is a must if he hopes to become the NHL’s highest-paid winger, an unofficial title currently held by Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers ($11.64 million per year).

Only four players have scored more goals and only five have scored more points than the Finnish winger over the past three seasons. He’s produced in the playoffs as well (49 points in 38 games over the same time frame) but some have questioned his consistency and defensive efforts. If he capitalizes on the additional opportunity at even strength and on the power play, he will hold all of the leverage in contract talks this summer.

Avalanche Could Struggle to Start the 2024-25 Season

While there are many reasons to believe in the Avalanche this season, it’s very likely that the team will struggle out of the gate until the forward group gets to full health.

The Central Division – while weakened – arguably remains the league’s strongest, and could leave the Avalanche with a lot of ground to make up heading into the second half of the season.

They have shown the ability to stay in the race in the past, but they may be too depleted to win the Central unless their closest competitors stumble out of the gate. If they escape the first two months unscathed and every absent player returns, look for the Avalanche to get rolling at the most important time of the year.

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